The thing about trains - it doesn't matter where they're going. What matters is deciding to get on -- Conductor

from the Polar Express! We did it! It was wonderful and incredible and made the whole Christmas season jump start for us! We had a great time and will try to do this for many years to come. Instead of writing too much about it, we just really want to share some video, some pics and a few thoughts.

Starting with this one. Watching a toddler pack is hilarious! Joseph was helping us pack up the bags on Friday morning before we left. He wanted to bring certain things but we had to put a limit on how much... here is how it went down:

So, once we arrived at the hotel, well, you can see for yourselves: and

Once checked in and tickets in hand, we had to take a little rest. Our new euphemism for taking a nap is watching football either on the couch or in this case on the hotel bed. Aren't they so cute? I think this was the Colorado game on Friday:

We had a lovely dinner at the Lodge and then got into our matching, fun, red Christmas PJs. Joseph had to wear the boots, of course! Here is where the fun begins:

Once on the train, we had hot chocolate, cookies, and had the story read. Joseph got to see the pictures and Chef Debra was very sweet and took a particular liking to our little guy: and with daddy:

we got situated and just watched!


I think this is a long and big enough post to truly capture the magnitude of the event in our little guy's memory. There are a couple more shots from the weekend but those will have to come later in the week. And, on Friday we will have an update on the Baby Bean-nette as it will be her first of the 4 weekly appointments leading up to her arrival date on or before Dec. 29th!

So much for which to be thankful!

We are so blessed! And, although we missed being with family this Thanksgiving, both those in PA and those in FL, we still felt the heart-filled love and blessings that the Lord has given us. We had a wonderful day and it started with a great walk to the park. The weather was really gorgeous, if not almost warm. I think the final temp was 82. Joseph rode his tricycle and me and Mike had the jogging stroller "just in case". We needed it! Joseph is very good at biking but certainly can get distracted.

We got to the park and Mike brought the football. So, here is the first of many of my Thanksgiving mornings that will involve my son, his dad, and really any other male in our families joining in to play one of Joseph's favorite games -- toss and catch!

And, here is a shot of Joseph throwing... notice he has thrown the ball left-handed and see how high and far it is... yes, I am worried:
And, a short video:
We had a delicious dinner with our Chilean "family"... I don't have any pictures because we were too busy stuffing our faces with Claudia's amazing turkey, all of the wonderful sides, and incredible desserts. But, it was a perfect Thanksgiving Day!

And now... I have to stop writing to prepare our many readers for the next couple of posts. We went to the Polar Express for the weekend and boy do we have a ton of pics and videos to share! Can't wait to get them all organized to share!

Love!
us

Italian Lessons

Mommy Meg here. So, we have gone back and forth about many things in being parents. One of them is how much we would love to teach Joseph and our subsequent children Italian. But, since I don't speak much Italian we have shied away from it. But, with Mike being at an international business school and having his Italian citizenship, we are slowly introducing some Italian words to Joseph's vocabulary. I mean, slowly and not many words... but words that I know at least :-)

The other night was one of the funniest exchanges and I wanted to capture it here because, well, this is Joseph's virtual baby book. We were teaching him some phrases on going to bed. So, Mike tucked him in and said, "buona notte". Joseph's response was "edamame". It was too cute! He loves edamame and knows what it is, so why he thought it could also mean good night was just too funny for us. We had to hurry out of the room before we cracked up too much.

Here is a picture and video from one of our other lessons.
I was making lasagna rolls and he was helping me while we stirred all of the ingredients. I turned around and this was what I saw...
Just chomping away on the Parmigiano-Reggiano:
And, then I had to get him to practice some Italian:

My First Hair Cut!

Hi! It's been a fun Halloween week! The costume is put away and the flo was flowing. Mommy and daddy had been talking about it for a few weeks. It was all supposed to happen after my Halloween costume debut as a lion:
I also liked this pic of the mane in the wind with candy:

And a shot of the mane with me, mommy and daddy:
As you can tell from the pictures, my hair was pretty long and it had only ever been trimmed at the bangs twice by mommy. It was starting to get tangled and so they were thinking that Nov. 1 would be a good day to get it cut.

On Nov. 1st we had a nice morning. We went to church and I loved it! I am learning all about God's Creation! He created quite a lot you know?!? And I love my Giraffe Sunday School class. We get to play outside on the fun play ground too. We came home and had really good naps.

Mommy cried when she started the last round of really cutting...

She cut it really about 3 times, in three waves...
And here is another little video for good measure:
And, the finished product! See, don't I look older? About half way through the cut, mommy did tear up. Daddy said that I would still have my curl flare and that we were going to have our little girl and hopefully she will have curls that we won't need to trim. But, I digress, here is my final product: